Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the (a) The Target Operating Model for probation services in England and Wales and (b) National Probation Service Operating Model, published on 27 September 2016, what changes will be made to the proportions of court reports targeted to be (i) oral delivery reports completed on the day, (ii) written fast delivery reports and (iii) standard delivery reports completed by (A) Probation Services Officers and (B) Probation Officers.

Pre-Sentence Reports (PSRs) are important tools for the assessment of offenders’ risk and individual needs, and for supporting the independent judiciary to consider the appropriate sentence.

In February 2021 the government published an updated Target Operating Model for reforms to probation services in England and Wales. The long-term ambition for PSRs once investment and reforms set out in the Target Operating Model are implemented is to increase the proportion of sentences in which PSRs are requested by the judiciary to 75%, with an emphasis on providing more detailed reports on a targeted basis to inform effective sentencing and to support long term desistence from offending. As part of that ambition, the aim is to achieve 10% of PSR delivery as Standard Delivery Reports, 40% as written Short format reports and 50% delivered in Oral format. This compares to equivalent proportions of 10%, 30% and 60% under the 2016 NPS operating model.

Recognising the experience of disproportionality in the Criminal Justice System as a whole for women and individuals from an ethnic minority background, the intention is that higher proportions of more detailed reports will be completed for these cohorts, together with individuals at risk of a short-term custodial sentence for whom a community sentence might still be appropriate.